


Reality and Consequence

by SushiOwl



Series: Sinestro/Arin Sur [9]
Category: Green Lantern (Comic)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Heartbreaking, Sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-12
Updated: 2012-09-12
Packaged: 2017-11-14 02:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/510507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SushiOwl/pseuds/SushiOwl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sinestro can protect his people from outside threats, but he cannot protect his family from his people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reality and Consequence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kitmarlow](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Kitmarlow), [Mariana](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Mariana), [Everyone else that reads these fics.](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Everyone+else+that+reads+these+fics.).



> Thank you, all of you.

From the very beginning, the doctors had told them the birth would be complicated. It was to be expected with the birth of a child from two races. They had suggested a C-section, but Arin was quite against the idea. She wanted to give birth naturally, to bring her child into the world the right way. That was, of course, her decision, but after much debate Sinestro had convinced her of a C-section if normal birth became impossible.

"Your baby is very comfortable," the doctor said, lifting her head to look over the sheet that was covering Arin's legs. "He or she is sideways to the birthing canal."

"Oh good!" Arin panted, a very aggravated expression on her face. She was drenched in sweat and gripping Sinestro's hand so hard that he was losing feeling in his fingers. "I wouldn't our child to be uncomfortable."

The doctor flicked her black and gold eyes between them, before she disappeared under the sheet again. "I'm going to turn the baby. You may feel some discomfort."

"More discomfort? How can I feel more discomfort than--" She shouted something kind of incoherent as she found out, squeezing the fingers in her hand all the tighter.

"Arin," Sinestro said, setting his other hand on hers to try to gently pry her hand open a little. "Control your breathing and concentrate on something else."

"Don't you tell me how to give birth," she hissed, though she tried to put her breathing to the right rhythm. "What am I supposed to concentrate on?" She was speaking through her teeth.

"Me," he suggested.

Her frown was instantaneous and rather pretty. "Every time I look at you, I want to hit you for doing this to me. Try again."

He glanced around the room, before he gestured to the window. "What about those flowers?"

She looked at them, still doing the rhythmic breathing. They were a pinkish purple, and their petals fold in on each other. "They need water," she said, sounding like she was determined to be calm.

It was another nine hours before a cry ripped through their the delivery room.

"It's a girl," the doctor said, cutting the cord and wrapping the wailing baby in a cream colored blanket.

Sinestro took her from the doctor, wiping her face with the blanket. He looked at Arin, but she was so deliriously done with this experience that her eyes weren't open anymore. So he just turned his attention back to his daughter. She had stopped crying and had confusion in her big eyes.

"Hello," he said to her, lifting a finger for her to grasp. "My little Soranik. Welcome to the universe."

"That's nice," Arin said in a groggy voice, and he went to her as she opened her eyes. "I like it."

***

Since Soranik was born, it seemed as if Sinestro and Arin spent most of their time arguing. A mixture of sleep deprivation and outside influence kept them both on edge. This time the subject was the threats that were being made against Sinestro and family.

"You need to remove yourself from this," Arin told him, gesturing to the window of their home. "All of it."

Sinestro frowned. She didn't understand. "I cannot do that, and you know it. I have a responsibility to Korugar. Eventually my people will understand what I am trying to do for them."

"Or what?" she asked. "You'll throw another radical leader in prison? Try to make an example of someone? Thaal, stop thinking about the bigger picture and think about our family. Think about our daughter!" She pointed to Soranik.

The young girl, now nearly a year old, was playing with her toys on a blanket that was spread out for her. She was thankfully oblivious to the argument. She only reacted when they shouted, and they was when she cried.

"I _am_ thinking about her," Sinestro hissed. "I want her to live in a place of order and peace. I want that for us all."

"You think out there is peaceful? People are calling you a tyrant!" She rubbed her eyes with her fingertips and drew her shoulders up. "Thaal, I'm scared."

"Don't be," he told her, touching her shoulder. "I'll protect you."

But she wasn't in the mood to be comforted, and she smacked his hand away. "If you stay on this path, you'll end up dead. How can you protect us then?"

Sinestro didn't have an answer for that, but he didn't need one, because Soranik interrupted with a "Da da!"

They both looked over. The baby had pushed herself to her feet and was wobbling there. But once she was sure she wasn't going to fall, she put out her tiny hands and took imperfect steps toward them. Wordlessly, they sank to the ground, watching her as she approached. When she reached them, they both put their arms around her.

Arin pressed her face into Sinestro's neck and sobbed, and he could only gaze silently down at his grinning daughter.

***

The times on Ungara were the peaceful ones. There Sinestro and Arin could take a breath and relax. They could even pretend that, back on Korugar, there wasn't a crowd marching against Sinestro's regime. 

"Be careful!" Arin shouted with a laugh, shielding her eyes from the sun as she watched Sinestro fly away off with their daughter in his arms.

"Am I ever anything but?" he called back, smiling as Soranik screamed with joy. 

Ungara was a place of rich beauty, and now that he wasn't constantly trying to find Arin in its foliage, he could enjoy the scenery. Soranik enjoyed it too, if her happy burbling was anything to go by. She wiggled in his arms, and he released her. A vein of hard light kept them connected, and she shakily put her arms out like she was flying under her own power.

He could only smile with pride as he watched her. She didn't fear heights, and she was smiling so wide. She looked quite like her mother, so carefree. But thankfully her hair wasn't made of unruly curls. Instead it was straight and fine, like his own, and that made it easy to manage.

He turned and flew beneath her, putting out his arms and catching her as he released to the construct the held her. She squealed and pawed his chest to hold him around the neck.

"I will always catch you, little one," he told her, and she giggled.

***

The harder he pushed his agenda, the more people came to resist him. He had supporters, and they pushed back against the radicals. There was a civil war on the horizon, that much he could see, but he was confident in his ideals. What he wasn't so sure of was his home life. That was falling apart.

Arin was standing before the large window in the sitting area, and she didn't even look at him when he greeted her. He looked around, and something was amiss.

"Where's Soranik?" he asked, and she didn't respond. A quick sweep of their home revealed nothing but her absence. He held in his panic as best he could. "Arin, where is she?"

When she didn't reply again, he grabbed her arm and turned her to face him, grabbing her other arm as well and giving her a shake. She closed her eyes tightly, shrinking in on herself. "Answer me!"

"She's safe," Arin said in a quiet, defeated voice.

Sinestro's brows came together, and he searched her face for clues. "But where is she? How can I protect her if she's not here?"

Arin shook her head. "You can't protect her. It's you she needs protecting from." She still wasn't looking at him.

He stared at her, and all the anger left him. Only desperation remained. He put his hands on her face and tried to lift it to him. She refused, her fingers curled on his chest, small and trembling. "Don't do this. Don't pull away from me. I don't want to lose you, Arin."

Finally she opened her eyes and looked up, and it broke his heart to look at her. "You may not have a choice."

***

It was an extremist attack the toppled the tower. Explosives had been attached to the support of the building, and it had come crumbling down. That was what Sinestro had been told, since he hadn't been there to see it.

He was numb as he approached the body on the ground. It was covered with a black tarp, at home amongst the burnt stone and crumpled remains of the building. He knelt and pulled it back, both prepared and completely unprepared for what he saw.

She was dirty and bruised. Her lips were purple, and she was pale. Her dress was torn across her arms where she had lifted them to shield herself. Her eyes were closed.

He went down to his other knee and sat back on his heels, taking her hand in his and bringing it up to his cheek. Her skin was so cold.

He couldn't cry, no matter how much he wanted to. People were watching him. He could never cry again, because now people would always be watching him.

He reached with his free hand to touch her face, moving a few wild strands of hair from her forehead. "I'm so sorry," he told her in a breath, hardly loud enough to be heard by even himself.

Now everything he loved was gone. All he had was his duty.

**Author's Note:**

> [Companion image.](http://whisker-diaries-art.tumblr.com/post/37565263270/whisker-diaries-sushiowl-just4fun-blog) Thanks, Mari.
> 
> I've never gotten so attached to fandom characters I've written about quite like I've done for Sinestro and Arin. This journey that I've written for them, though silly at times, has put me through a true whirlwind of emotions. I will miss them.


End file.
